An Open Letter to our Elected Representatives on EDUCATION

This is a continuation of the topic from early February. The fight isn’t over, and as Neil mentioned on his page, there is a rally on March 12 in Austin for anyone who can attend.

To the Honorable ____: (I sent mine to Ellis, Davis and Coleman)

I have never been a proponent of the NCLB legacy that embarrassment of a human being GWB left behind as I felt it was BS from the beginning, but this just further underscores the perception that perhaps the lip service from all of you as our elected officials indicates that you don’t hold our children and their education as dearly as you should.

While I know that there are those who continually gripe about the lack of overall effectiveness in many bureaucratic organizations and systems, as yet, no one has come up with a better system to educate the thousands/millions of children in this state/country. We were able to do it successfully for years, nay decades. What is getting in the way now? Teachers have always been true heroes. An inspirational teacher has led many people on to do tremendous things that have benefitted society. Who inspired YOU to get into politics?

My point is this: if we can pi$$ away millions/billions/trillions of dollars for decades on things that don’t truly advance us as human beings and good citizens of the world (weaponry, infrastructure in foreign countries that are continually going to be destroyed and have to be rebuilt while the infrastructure in our own country continues to crumble, military occupation of countries that really don’t want our dysfunction crammed down their throats, bailing out Wall Street fat cats with taxpayer money so they can continue to live a life 99% of us could never dream of), why, oh WHY can’t we invest in our collective futures and provide a quality education for our children that doesn’t have to be sacrificed every time the math gets too hard for you politicians?

We can NOT afford to potentially lose any teachers or cut programs as we already don’t have enough in the overcrowded schools, and we all know that’s one of the first places they cut. (See Scott’s post about his recent layoff after 14 years of teaching!) We should NOT take away the incentives for the teachers that are doing a terrific job. Studies have shown that an education in and exposure to the arts further enhances the educational experience, so taking away from Magnet Art Programs is also not an acceptable solution. When I was in school, we had PE every day and art AND music every week, in addition to actually learning reading, writing, arithmetic, science and social studies. How did we get so far away from that?

Perhaps we should stop building shrines to the Texas religion of sports with tax dollars, then we might not have as many people gritching about the misuse of taxpayer funds through what some consider to be already-ridiculous property taxes. Perhaps we should insist that a child educated in Texas speak English and not double our expenditures on teaching someone else’s native language so that it actually slows the matriculation rate. If my kids were being educated in a foreign country, they would have to learn the language of THAT country, and other studies have shown that the immersion method is very successful. Perhaps certain narrow-minded politicians should quit trying to rewrite the history books and dumb down science to fit their backwards evolutionary BS and just allow teachers to TEACH. It worked well enough to give us some pretty good scientists, mathematicians, authors, doctors, engineers, etc. before. How were YOU educated?

Please, can we fix this? For our own sake, don’t cut the budget on something so important to our future. Take a pay cut yourself instead as a start. Kick Governor Goodhair out of that ridiculous $10,000-a-month mansion. Walk the walk, but quit walking all over the children.

Comments

At my daughter’s elementary school they have kids that speak 22 different languages, many of them European…I think that is really cool. But, it may be that ESL is a failed experiment, I certainly am no judge. I will say this, when my daughter started in elementary I asked if she could get into ESL classes to learn Spanish and they looked at me as if I was from another planet.

With all the problems we have in America, THIS may likely be the biggest. Cutting funding for education, laying off teachers……this, like having no national energy policy, is really gonna come back and bit us in the ass.

AH,
Clear Creek does have a program called TWI (two way immersion) that teaches kids both languages. It’s only at one school though (McWhirter Elementary). We have the same program at our school. We don’t use it to its full potential. We offer it to English speaking students but so few take advantage.
In education and without, the problem is that teachers take up most of the budget and education takes up most of the education budget. It is the small expenditures that always stand out. Add education and the highway fund together and you’ve licked more than 80 percent of the state budget. Kelly hit on the problem a few weeks ago.
The property tax is a horrible way to pay for schools. When my father was the superintendant in Hitchcoch, the biggest tax payer was the Dairy Queen. It’s better now, but not much. Sadly, trailer parks just don’t generate a great deal of tax revenue. Moreover, when you cap it at 1.25 or 1.50 per 1000 dollars in value you hamstring them that much more. Most districts are already at the cap.
This is one of those instances when we need to be creative. The heck with the blame game. That gets us nowhere. Of course, it would help if our elected officials wouldn’t lie about the shortfall during the campaign. State sales tax increase? Legalized gambling? The horror, a state income tax? People just don’t understand that we pay one way or another. Who gives a shit who the money goes to. If it leaves my pocket it ain’t mine anymore. Whether it be the county, city, Austin, or a damn private school, the money isn’t mine anymore. Get over it people.